Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I'm just curious how much is the initial fee to become a GW retailer a former friend of mine said it was a 1400 buy-in if that is true does it come with your first round of inventory?

Honestly if you are serious the best place to ask is GW directly for a quote.

Might be different in the US but there are tiers of relationships and minimum range requirements. Also, retailers are fed up with the ordering system, the limits on credit meaning you often have to pay for items that might never arrive and linked to that unexpected rationing and erratic delivery times.

I imagine it is more than that.

Contact info here:
https://trade.games-workshop.com/start-here/

IIRC there are tiers as the real chris said, and additionally it also varies by the size of the store/how much space you agree to allocate to GW inventory. IIRC it does include the first round of inventory - but (again, IIRC) you don't get to choose what that inventory is - GW sends you a package of best-selling inventory/starter materials, etc. that you *must* stock. You can add additional stuff on top of that, BUT as real chris also stated, its a real bad time to get into it because GWs supply chain is all kinds of screwed up and you will pay up front for stuff that might not arrive for 6+ months. The only inventory which is arriving on time on a consistent basis right now is GWs new releases (i.e. the stuff that goes up for preorder each saturday). If you get your orders in early/before the cutoff time you are generally guaranteed to have it in stock within a week (though now and again if fedex or whoever is slow it might arrive a few days late, and occasionally there are bigger holdups on GWs end and stuff gets delayed several weeks). Other than that though, if you're trying to order restocks you will seemingly be waiting quite a while - one local store received their last restock in November, which they had ordered about 5-6 months prior. They are currently waiting on *another* restock, going on 3 months.

The only bonus is that every other retail line is basically in the same boat right now. It's a bad time for anything and everything shipping. Even supermarkets are having trouble and don't get the same number of deliveries that they normally would.

We aren't at "food shortages" levels, but yeah international products are taking time to move around the world and its not as reliable as it was. Thing is that's likely to be the normal for probably at least the next year or more. Certainly until the ports and shipping can start clearing backlogs; containers can come down in price and supply routes start to settle down .

You also have to be wary of them insisting you must stock far more two-player starter boxes than you'll ever sell.

 AnomanderRake wrote:
You also have to be wary of them insisting you must stock far more two-player starter boxes than you'll ever sell.

Yup. GW has been taken to court over anticompetitive practices as well. They'll try to feth over retailers who spent time growing a community by yanking their support and then putting a GW store in the area.

 Overread wrote:
Even supermarkets are having trouble and don't get the same number of deliveries that they normally would.

Working in the US food industry, we're having issues getting in items every single delivery and have had to discontinue certain items because of it. It's not at massive levels(except during the big freezes in 2020) and which items aren't available has rotated around, but it's near there if you're in the industry.

 Platuan4th wrote:

 Overread wrote:
Even supermarkets are having trouble and don't get the same number of deliveries that they normally would.

Working in the US food industry, we're having issues getting in items every single delivery and have had to discontinue certain items because of it. It's not at massive levels(except during the big freezes in 2020) and which items aren't available has rotated around, but it's near there if you're in the industry.

I work in a grocery store and there are times we just go weeks without product with no warning or explination only to get a single case of something we ordered six cases of. That's not counting the additional disruptions, like the recent ice storms in Texas that basically screwed over our ability to get chicken. And that's just the issues with the domestically sourced products.